


The Empress's Golden Empire

by dracoMidnight



Series: Temerairestuck [8]
Category: Homestuck, Temeraire - Naomi Novik
Genre: M/M, Multi, Other, more tags will be added on the further i write, temerairestuck
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-31
Updated: 2017-06-28
Packaged: 2018-07-28 12:32:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,163
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7640179
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dracoMidnight/pseuds/dracoMidnight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This here will be the full story of my Temerairestuck writing and not just drabbles like I had been doing. It will start before Sayria joins and then from then on the story will continue as I write on/when the whim takes me. How many chapters will this have? I have no idea, but let's find out how many it is gonna have then shall we?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter I

Dave blinked open his eyes tiredly before groaning at the beam of light that had then decided to pierce them before it quickly disappeared just as soon as it had came. A large scaled head had poked its way into the tent and sniffed at the bed he was laying on before a low rumbling came from it.

“Come on asshole. It’s time to wake up.” Dave groans and smacks at the snout that is now nudging him half-heartedly.

“Mhhh, a few more minutes…” Another groan and he tries to roll over while still blearily swatting at the prodding nose and flickering tongue.

“You had your few more minutes. Now it is time to get up. Don’t make me rip the tent up.” Karkat snorts at him before rearing up slightly, Dave quickly sat up before glowering at his dragon when the head turned to show one gleaming, mischievous eye.

“You motherfucker…” He grumbles before rubbing at his face and cleaning the crust around his eyes. His dragon just laughs at him and backs his head out of the tent.

“Just get ready, Dave. We need to get moving otherwise we are gonna miss them!” Karkat’s voice is fading as he walks further away in the clearing to go back to his meal.

Dave gets up after sitting on his bed for a little bit and stretches out and gets ready, buckling his carabiner straps on with ease. He comes out after a little while to see Karkat finishing up with his meal while the ground crew finishes harnessing him up. One of the servants from the Falmouth covert grounds comes up beside him, tray in hand with a mug of coffee on it along with a scone on a plate for him to eat. He grabs the mug and downs it with a quick thanks before picking the scone up and goes over to Karkat while he munches on it. A strong gust of wind from his wings soon fills the clearing with flurries of snow before he goes back down onto all fours.

“All clear.” Is soon said afterward while Karkat sniffs his harness over once more to make sure that nothing is too tight on him or restricting his movement. Someone exits out of the building nearby and quickly runs over to Dave, carrying a parcel and a bunch of letters wrapped up in wax paper and twine.

“Dave! Oh thank god I got to you in time! I have some stuff from the grounds that need to be delivered if you can do that?” The guy tells him while he tries to catch his breath back, holding out the mail for Dave.

“Yeah, I can get those delivered. We are on delivery anyway since our formation is currently still in training. Where do you want these delivered to?” Dave took the parcels of mail as he walked up to Karkat and put them inside the netting with the other mail.

“The parcel is to the Dover covert and the letters are for Loch Laggan.” He says while he walks along behind him.

“Ok, that’s doable. Dover is on our way and we are heading back to Loch Laggan as well. If that is all sir?” Dave turns and looks at the guy who was following him and he shook his head before waving in farewell and turned to return back to the building. “Are you ready Karkat?” Dave turns his head around to look up at the dragon.

“I’ve been ready for the past five minutes. Hurry your ass up.” Is the immediate reply back.

Dave snorts but climbs up into the harness and latches himself on to the straps with his carabiners. “Well then, if you are still ready, then let’s go.”

Karkat snorts at him before tensing up, the muscles underneath Dave, bunching up before releasing as Karkat launches himself up into the air, large wings beating as he takes flight and turns slightly to head in the direction of the Dover covert.

“At least it is a nice day.” Dave says loud enough over the wind rushing past them while Karkat beats his wings in time to the currents he finds.

Karkat doesn’t say anything but he shifts his head a little which is the only indicator that Dave gets from him that he had heard what he had said. Dave quickly finishes his scone before looking at the list given to him of which coverts and areas they needs to go to with the mail. At least they are all in one general location and not out of their way. They’ll need to go to Dover first since it’s the closest one, then Edinburgh and as their last stop, Loch Laggan.

“Karkat! We may also need to stop by Weymouth. There may be some mail there and it’s on our way to Dover.” Dave soon calls out as he looks at the compass in his hand.

Karkat snorts before shifting his wings a tad at the slight tap to his left shoulder another strong beat of his wings before he levels out again. “Do we have to go to Weymouth? Isn’t there already another carrier there?”

Dave rolls his eyes before calling back to him, “Yes, we need to go to Weymouth. I already told you it was on the way. Plus there hasn’t been a dragon carrier there for a while apparently.”

Karkat grumbles softly but beats onward on occasion while Dave wraps his coat around him a little bit tighter. Being up this high and in the winter times makes for some pretty frigid flying but not as bad as it is in Russia he had been told. He settles himself closer to Karkat’s neck while every once in awhile he looks down at his compass and lightly directs his course in the proper direction.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Man, looking at a map of the United Kingdom and seeing where the coverts are exactly in the Temeraire series makes me feel so much more prouder of all of the courier dragons. As they are going a fucking long ass distance. Sure not as long as Lung Shen Li can go for, but these distances aren't short at all. But I guess if you are looking at them like they are much faster airplanes I guess it makes sense...?


	2. Well... There's the Courier?

When the two finally entered Weymouth Karkat went tense, his tongue flicking in the air. "What is it, bud?" Dave called out over the roaring of the wind as they continue their fast pace to the landing grounds.

"A dragon has been injured." Is all that he gets from his dragon and that is no less settling.

"Is it inside the landing grounds?"

A nod is all he needs before he gives Karkat a few taps on the shoulder. He knows what Dave meant by it and tucks in his wings to drop in altitude. Once they broke the cloud cover it's not hard to see why Karkat could smell the other dragon. Dave now knows why there had been a delay for the courier from Weymouth as they ended up choosing the worst possible dragon ever for the task and on top of it all, the dragon isn't supposed to be a courier in the first place. The injured dragon in question is grumbling bitterly, his captain nowhere in sight, presumably talking to his medic. Karkat lands carefully beside the larger dragon, a middleweight veering on heavyweight cross. The dragon despite having his parents be yellow and black had instead turned up an almost shimmery green tinted albino white. But the strange color from the dragon wasn't the only thing strange about it. The moment that Karkat landed, the two heads of the white dragon lifted up to stare bitterly at the creature who intruded on his turf. The four sets of eyes were a bright yellowish green that pierced through the slight fog drifting passed them.

Dave landed on the ground and took a peak at the dragon's wounds. As originally thought, it was self-inflicted. The two heads often fight with each other and this time around it ended up with the two biting and scratching at each other. Most two-headed dragons don't live long. Mainly because the corps kill them right then and there to avoid having them do exactly this. There were also the issues of eating and drinking since both heads have a separate brain each and often aren't on the same page. The only reason why this one lived is because of his rider and the fact that this dragon had hid and somehow kept his hatching in secret.

"Erisol, where's Jake?" Dave asks, one of the heads lowers with a snort and bare of fangs.

"Why should we tell you?" The head lisps back around elongated fangs. The other head is staring at Karkat, the large frill on either side of his head flared out slightly.

Turns out, a pairing between an Honneur-d'Or and a Celestial made for a very stubborn but smart mix... albeit there had only been two eggs managed between the pairing and both had ended up with mutations of some sort. So the pair was scrapped and the only one left from the test ended up being Erisol. Erisol had managed to get the long narrow head of the Celestial along with the large frill but he had also gotten the red and blue stripes across his eyes from the Honneur-d'Or, however pale and faded they are now. The only thing though was that only two of the four stripes showed up. Then there came the fact that he had gotten the lithe narrow body of the Celestial as well and in place of the bright blue spots often found on the wings of a Celestial, bright green instead took their place. The only thing that he didn't get from his Celestial side was the fifth claw most commonly known by Celestials. The only thing that confused everybody though was the green tinging to his scales. No one could figure out why the two breeds had managed to produce a dragon with green. Albinism is very rare among dragons but they know that that can happen. But the green was a surprise.

Jake soon came running out from the building upon being informed of Dave by one of his ensigns who had been beside Erisol.

"Ah, Dave my good fellow! You came at a jolly good time I say!" He stopped by his dragon's foreleg with a big grin on his face. "Poor, Erisol here merely got into a dispute with himself! About something quite silly too if you ask me!"

The head staring at Karkat recoils in indignation with a snort. "It was not about somethin' silly!" The other head lifted away from Dave with another nod.

"Jake, you know that they can't keep fighting with each other. Remember what the corps said?"

"Aw, bloody hell sport. Forget about those suckers, they aren't going to take Erisol here away from me. I mean look at how far he's gone!" Jake clapped a hand on his dragon's leg but the two heads had a slightly worried look to them.

"Remember what about the corps, Jake..?"  
"What are they goin' to do?"

Both heads were now staring at their rider who had looked away from them, biting his lower lip slightly. "It's nothing, chap! Don't worry your heads over it. I promise that they won't do anything to you two!"

Neither of them looked reassured but at a glance to the other they relented with a sigh, frills flattening to their heads. Dave gestured to Jake before murmuring, "I need to speak with you in private..." Jake gave a small frown but nodded his head.

"Sure thing. But I have a favor to ask as well. We weren't here for the mail as you know for a fact that we aren't a courier dragon! But... that brings to question. Have you seen the dragon meant to go on this route? That was why we were sent here in the first place."

Dave frowned at that but shook his head. "I haven't come across any courier dragon on my way here. Not even glimpse or smell a them..."

Jake gave a sigh but rubbed the back of his head. "Well, shucks then. Looks like we will have to keep on looking until we find them. Or at least until Erisol here recovers. Which brings me to another favor! Do you have some supplies we can use? We just used the last bit of ours."

"Yeah, we have some extra. But we can't stay for long, gonna have to get the mail and continue on our path. We're heading for Loch Laggan."

"That's were we are heading to mate! Can you stay for just a little bit longer, about a day or two while we try to find the courier? If we still haven't found trace nor hair of them in about two days then we can continue on."

Dave gave a small grimace at that, he had a time schedule to adhere to and he prides himself on being on time... but this is a serious matter as well. It's not often that a courier gets lost. "All right... we'll stay for a bit. Let's hope we find them though."

Jake nodded his head gravely at that, a lot of things could've happened to the dragon and it's rider...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey folks! Sorry that this took so long to make. I had been having a lot of computer issues and now I need to purchase Microsoft word again so until then I'm gonna have to be writing with AO3s text box. Enjoy though and yes the sprites are also in this series! Right now though it's just Erisol.


End file.
